Best-selling author Rafe Esquith, the only teacher to receive the National Medal of Arts, has garnered the American Teacher Award and numerous other honors. Still teaching fifth graders in a small, leaky classroom in downtown Los Angeles, Esquith fosters a wholesome climate where character, humility, and diligence matter and support is unconditional. For his mostly poor and Hispanic students, Esquith models two maxims: Be nice and work hard, and There are no shortcuts. And his students thrive!

Lighting Their Fires: How Parents and Teachers Can Raise Extraordinary Kids

An award-winning educator and the New York Times best-selling author of Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, Rafe Esquith knows a thing or two about connecting with today's young people. Here he offers parents sound, proven advice on raising children ready to thrive in the 21st century.

Teach Like a Champion 2.0: 62 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College

Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is a complete update to the international best seller. This teaching guide is a must-have for new and experienced teachers alike. More than 700,000 teachers around the world already know how the techniques in this audiobook turn educators into classroom champions. With ideas for everything from classroom management to inspiring student engagement, you will be able to perfect your teaching practice right away.

Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America

When Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that and more. In their early twenties, by sheer force of talent and determination never to take no for an answer, they created a wildly successful fifth-grade experience that would grow into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which today includes 66 schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone)

We’ve all had great teachers who opened new worlds, maybe even changed our lives. What made them so great? Everyone agrees that a great teacher can have an enormous impact. Yet we still don't know what, precisely, makes a teacher great. Is it a matter of natural-born charisma? Or does exceptional teaching require something more? Building a Better Teacher introduces a new generation of educators exploring the intricate science underlying their art.

Ken Robinson is one of the world's most influential voices in education, and his 2006 TED Talk on the subject is the most viewed in the organization's history. Now, the internationally recognized leader on creativity and human potential focuses on one of the most critical issues of our time: how to transform the nation's troubled educational system.

Teaching the Brain to Read: Strategies for Improving Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension

Reading comes easily to some students, but many struggle with some part of this complex process that requires many areas of the brain to operate together through an intricate network of neurons. As a classroom teacher who has also worked as a neurologist, Judy Willis offers a unique perspective on how to help students not only learn the mechanics of reading and comprehension, but also develop a love of reading.

Classrooms that Spark!: Recharge and Revive Your Teaching

No matter how long they've been teaching all teachers need new ideas to keep their classrooms organized, their students engaged and motivated, and their lesson plans sharp. This second edition of the winner of the 2006 Teacher's Choice Award, offers invaluable guidance on major topics such as organization, student engagement, assessment, creating great lesson plans, teaching with technology, and classroom management and discipline. This is the ultimate guide for teachers who want to maintain their passion for teaching.

The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child

In The Book Whisperer, Miller takes us inside her sixth grade classroom to reveal the secrets of her powerful but unusual instructional approach. Rejecting book reports, comprehension worksheets, and other aspects of conventional instruction, Miller embraces giving students an individual choice in what they read, combined with a program for independent reading. She also focuses on building a classroom library of high-interest books, and above all on modeling appropriate and authentic reading behaviors.

Becoming a Legendary Teacher: A Guide to Inspiring Excellence in the Classroom

Becoming a Legendary Teacher provides the perfect tools for constructing productive classrooms and cultivating a love of education among children. The authors encourage other educators to reach beyond the restrictions of rigid lesson plans to capture interest through innovation and interaction.

Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom

Kids are naturally curious, but when it comes to school it seems like their minds are turned off. Why is it that they can remember the smallest details from their favorite television programs, yet miss the most obvious questions on their history test? Cognitive scientist Dan Willingham has focused his acclaimed research on the biological and cognitive basis of learning and has a deep understanding of the daily challenges faced by classroom teachers.

The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher, 4th Edition

The bestselling book ever on classroom management and teaching for student achievement with over 3.7 million copies sold. The audiobook walks a teacher, either novice or veteran, through structuring and organizing a classroom for success that can be applied at any time of the year at any grade level, pre-K through college.

Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students, Second Edition: Teaching for Social Justice

In this time of narrowed curricula and high-stakes accountability, Gregory Michie's tales of struggle and triumph in Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students are as relevant as ever. Since it was first published, in 1999, Holler has become essential reading for new and seasoned teachers alike and is an inspiring read for many others.

Confessions of a Bad Teacher: The Shocking Truth from the Front Lines of American Public Education

An explosive new look at the pressures on today's teachers and the pitfalls of school reform, Confessions of a Bad Teacher presents a passionate appeal to save public schools, before it's too late. When John Owens left a lucrative job to teach English at a public school in New York City's South Bronx, he thought he could do some good. Faced with a flood of struggling students, Owens devised ingenious ways to engage every last one. But as his students began to thrive under his tutelage, Owens found himself increasingly mired in a broken educational system.

Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies that Work - and Why

Based on an extensive worldwide study, this audiobook reveals what gets boys excited about learning. Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys challenges the widely-held cultural impression that boys are stubbornly resistant to schooling while providing concrete examples of pedagogy and instructional style that have been proven effective in a variety of school settings. This audiobook offers more than 100 detailed examples of lessons that succeed with male students, grouped thematically. Such themes include: Gaming, Motor Activities, Open Inquiry, Competition, Interactive Technology, and Performance/Role Play.

Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools

From grade school to graduate school, from the poorest public institutions to the most affluent private ones, our educational system is failing students. In his provocative new book, cognitive scientist and best-selling author Roger Schank argues that class size, lack of parental involvement, and other commonly cited factors have nothing to do with why students are not learning. The culprit is a system of subject-based instruction and the solution is cognitive-based learning. This groundbreaking book defines what it would mean to teach thinking.

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way

How do other countries create "smarter" kids? In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy.What is it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers? In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embed­ded in these countries for one year.

Publisher's Summary

Best-selling author Rafe Esquith, the only teacher to receive the National Medal of Arts, has garnered the American Teacher Award and numerous other honors. Still teaching fifth graders in a small, leaky classroom in downtown Los Angeles, Esquith fosters a wholesome climate where character, humility, and diligence matter and support is unconditional. For his mostly poor and Hispanic students, Esquith models two maxims: Be nice and work hard, and There are no shortcuts. And his students thrive!

This is a very inspiring account of putting the creation of a classroom community and the building of character first in a way that brings amazing dividends in student growth. The author does not tell you that he is teaching a gifted class of Mexican and Asian immigrants but let's you think that he is dealing with all o the problem that a teacher of inner city youth deals with. Still, I came away with dozens of ideas for my 4th, 5th and 6th classroom by listening to this book.

If you could sum up Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire in three words, what would they be?

This book is inspiring and hopeful. While not all teachers will reach Rafe's level of commitment, they do exist and they are reaching many youth.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

I liked hearing about what these students went on to do with their adult lives. Rafe doesn't claim to reach all of his students, but he has been instrumental in many of their lives and they, in turn, are spreading his values, giving to their communities, and generally being positive, productive people.

Any additional comments?

I particularly liked his advice to young teachers. His program was built over years and was not without issues. It is a very inspiring read, with lots of good ideas, but he never says

Rafe sounds like a wonderful teacher. I gleaned a lot but I entirely disagreed with some of the movie titles available to the kids, I am with the Mom that had scheduled an exorcism, although I wouldn't go that far.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.